1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method used for the processing of semiconductor wafers.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the processing of semiconductor devices, it is highly desirable to accurately control the thermal treatment to which the devices are exposed during processing.
In the semiconductor industry, advancements in the development of semiconductor devices of decreased dimensions require the development of new processing and manufacturing techniques. One such processing technique is known as Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP). The RTP technique reduces the amount of time that a semiconductor device is exposed to high temperatures during processing. The RTP technique, typically includes irradiating the semiconductor device or wafer with sufficient power to rapidly raise the temperature of the wafer and maintaining the temperature for a time period long enough to successfully perform a fabrication process, but which avoids such problems as unwanted dopant diffusion that would otherwise occur during longer exposure to high processing temperatures.
For the above reasons, what is needed is an apparatus and method for isothermally distributing a temperature across the surface of a semiconductor device during rapid thermal processing.